USD 162 million Japanese project is a fully integrated RAS salmon farm, with hatchery, grow-out and processing facilities.

A new project aiming to capitalise on Japan’s growing appetite for salmon is underway. Construction on a new indoor salmon farm called “Soul of Japan” in Tsu City, Japan, will begin in 2019 and the facility will become operational in 2021, with the first products being available from 2022. Total investment in the project will be USD 162 million for production and processing facilities and the site will employ 130 staff.

Integrated
The project is aiming to produce about 10,000 tons per year to process fillets for the growing Japanese market for sushi and sashimi products.

Proprietary technology from AquaMaof Aquaculture Technologies will be employed in the RAS facilities. In September, the Israeli firm revealed a facility near Warsaw, Poland, which has successfully grown several large batches, now ranging from eggs to smolts to 5kg harvest-size fish.

4Kg salmon from the Polish facility “Global Fish” PHOTO: AquaMof

“Pure Salmon”
Martin Fothergill, Partner of 8F told SalmonBusiness that for the purposes of managing the fund’s aquaculture RAS projects, 8F set-up the company “Pure Salmon”. This is to ensure best practices at each facility, negotiate global and regional level off-take agreements, and to source for the best suppliers globally.

In Japan, Pure Salmon will be known as Soul of Japan, which is the local company that will operate and manage the salmon farm business in Japan.

In an email to SalmonBusiness, Martin Fothergill wrote: “The project is a major step in our global mission to reduce reliance on sea-farmed salmon and offer a healthier, more environmentally-friendly option. Pure Salmon is the salmon of the future, today.”

Soul of Japan
Erol Emed, CEO of Soul of Japan, added that he was extremely excited about the project: “The location is an optimum distance from Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka and will allow us to deliver clean, fresh, sustainable and locally produced premium Atlantic Salmon to our customers.”

Soul of Japan will be majority owned by 8F’s private equity fund, which will also own a 50% share in a 580 tons/year production capacity in the AquaMaof RAS facility in Poland.

Shai Silbermann, VP Marketing of AquaMaof, said to this publication that: “We see Asia as very strategic market for us, where there is a great demand for RAS-based facilities for the production of salmon and other species. “Soul of Japan” is not the only project we are involved in in Asia. We have several additional projects in different stages.”